> I think that it is true that the Church's teachings are corporatist.
> This means that they will at times have a populist element, though when
> push comes to shove, the Church hierarchy will go for the "bundle of
> sticks" (i.e. fascism or some other totalitarian variant). BTW, I did
> my college senior paper on th eeconomics of the papal encyclicals!
But it isn't just the tendencies of the Church hierarchy that is at issue, and thus that when "push comes to shove" Catholic corporatism will necessarily veer to the right. For instance, in the immediate post-WWII period, it is true that a group like the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists, which probably had more to do with the success and growth of the CIO than say the CPUSA, lost what remained of its corporatist critique of American capitalism and became an organization dedicated solely to anti-communism in the labor movement. But the post-war period also saw the Catholic and ever-cautious CIO leader Philip Murray put forth his Industry Council Plan, which tried to extend into the postwar period the tripartite (business, labor and the state) bargaining patterns seen in wartime institutions such as the War Labor Board and the Office of Price Administration. Said Murray, "The Industry Council Plan is a program for democratic economic planning and for participation by the people in the key decisions of the big corporations." Sounds good to me.
mark
________________________________________________________ NetZero - We believe in a FREE Internet. Shouldn't you? Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html